I finally beat that fucking robot. After over 2 years of not playing this game, Because of my anticipation fro dread I had the urge to return to my save file and finish up the game. It feels weird to talk about the game with such a long gap of inactivity, but I really enjoyed it and still remember most of the main game. Samus Returns is a great return to form for Metroid as a series considering the losing streak it's been on since Other M. The game feels like a classic Metroid and MercurySteam has done a really good job reimagining this game. There are some great ideas here, such as granting the Scan feature pretty early on. It's helpful tool but the Aeon gauge makes it so you can't spam it, especially later in the game when you have more Aeon powerups. There's a sense of progression and discovery, as new powerups will only add to your toolkit in both combat and exploration instead of weakening other parts. It's satisfying to come back to an obstacle and be able to access a new puzzle or upgrade through it.
The boss fights are really fun and super well-designed. The Diggernaut fight it one of the hardest game bosses I have ever fought. I'm not kidding. He hits like a truck and his fight is like this super elaborate puzzle. Ridley is also very fun and climactic. The soundtrack is good, not fantastic, but it services the game and the bosses well. I also like the little badass animations that plays when you get a counter on Metroid bosses, or the cutscenes where she finishes them off: this game just gives Samus a lot of personality without her uttering a word, conveying this badass lone wolf type. The way she controls is also really smooth and fluid, and upgrades only add to that fluidity, and puzzles and bosses become trickier to compensate. There's always a sweet new reward for backtracking and the puzzles make you think creatively, sometimes there is more than one way to solve them. The counter-move is super satisfying to master, but you do eventually become over-reliant on it.
Unfortunately, Samus Returns is brought down by a lot of dumb decisions, including some time-wasters. The biggest complaint I have is the art style. Landscapes or pretty bland and unexpressive and the different areas aren't really distinct from each other because of it. The obstacles are pretty video gamey and obvious, I feel like the Metroid games have done good job making obstacles feel somewhat integrated in the game world, but bricks that block you're path are very obviously Video Game Obstacles and not part of any narrative. There are about 10 different regular enemy types, but they are just copy/pasted across the map with different color pallets that just mean "this one does more damage!" or "this one needs an upgrade to kill!" or "this one breaths fire!" Near the middle I got bored of the repetition, especially with the bosses. Now the bosses are really well designed individually, both in gameplay and in visuals. But there are about 8 bosses in the game, but they are copy/pasted across the map to give the illusion of content. I'm not talking about just 3-4 times either. There is one boss that you beat 17 FUCKING TIMES. I'm not kidding. I get that the premise of the game is that you're exterminating all of the Metroids and making a total of 30 Metroids (yes, 30) fits narratively, but come ON.
This is also a very linear, with very little large shortcuts aside from Chozo teleporters, making backtracking a bit of a slog. Each area is really self-contained and, while pretty large on their own don't have much connective tissue with the other areas, most likely due to the limited hardware it had to run on. Sure the teleporters help but you have to sit through a pretty long cutscene and load time to use them. The same goes for elevators and refuel stations. The former I can accept because of the hardware limitations of generating such a large world but the latter is inexcusable because they already made the Aeon refills super simple. You walk over a platform and boom, you got it back. I feel like saving should also be a quicker affair, you should just be able to save and quit as long as you're not actively in combat. One final nitpick: there are parts of this game were you have to Power Bomb multiple bricks at once in a row. That should not be a thing. All of them should just explode in a chain, it's really stupid. However the worst part of this game is how fucking loud the Aeon scan is, Jesus Christ.
I get it, I've complained a lot, but I only critique things like this that I genuinely enjoy, because I only notice these things because I was so invested in the game. It's a breath of fresh air and an instant recommend for any Metroid fan. It's a very solid title with great gameplay and a good sense of exploration, but bogged down by bland environments, a weak roster of enemies, and other really annoying little quirks. I hope that with Dread, MercurySteam can flesh out the strengths (such as the Aeon abilities, the bossfights, and the fluidity of the controls), deliver more engaging visuals, and iron out the annoying time-wasting stuff. From what I've seen that's almost exactly what they're doing, now that they've gained Nintendo's trust. Metroid: Samus Returns is a solid albeit unsurprising Metroidvania, but that is hopelessly outclassed by it's modern contemporaries in both art style and variety.
The boss fights are really fun and super well-designed. The Diggernaut fight it one of the hardest game bosses I have ever fought. I'm not kidding. He hits like a truck and his fight is like this super elaborate puzzle. Ridley is also very fun and climactic. The soundtrack is good, not fantastic, but it services the game and the bosses well. I also like the little badass animations that plays when you get a counter on Metroid bosses, or the cutscenes where she finishes them off: this game just gives Samus a lot of personality without her uttering a word, conveying this badass lone wolf type. The way she controls is also really smooth and fluid, and upgrades only add to that fluidity, and puzzles and bosses become trickier to compensate. There's always a sweet new reward for backtracking and the puzzles make you think creatively, sometimes there is more than one way to solve them. The counter-move is super satisfying to master, but you do eventually become over-reliant on it.
Unfortunately, Samus Returns is brought down by a lot of dumb decisions, including some time-wasters. The biggest complaint I have is the art style. Landscapes or pretty bland and unexpressive and the different areas aren't really distinct from each other because of it. The obstacles are pretty video gamey and obvious, I feel like the Metroid games have done good job making obstacles feel somewhat integrated in the game world, but bricks that block you're path are very obviously Video Game Obstacles and not part of any narrative. There are about 10 different regular enemy types, but they are just copy/pasted across the map with different color pallets that just mean "this one does more damage!" or "this one needs an upgrade to kill!" or "this one breaths fire!" Near the middle I got bored of the repetition, especially with the bosses. Now the bosses are really well designed individually, both in gameplay and in visuals. But there are about 8 bosses in the game, but they are copy/pasted across the map to give the illusion of content. I'm not talking about just 3-4 times either. There is one boss that you beat 17 FUCKING TIMES. I'm not kidding. I get that the premise of the game is that you're exterminating all of the Metroids and making a total of 30 Metroids (yes, 30) fits narratively, but come ON.
This is also a very linear, with very little large shortcuts aside from Chozo teleporters, making backtracking a bit of a slog. Each area is really self-contained and, while pretty large on their own don't have much connective tissue with the other areas, most likely due to the limited hardware it had to run on. Sure the teleporters help but you have to sit through a pretty long cutscene and load time to use them. The same goes for elevators and refuel stations. The former I can accept because of the hardware limitations of generating such a large world but the latter is inexcusable because they already made the Aeon refills super simple. You walk over a platform and boom, you got it back. I feel like saving should also be a quicker affair, you should just be able to save and quit as long as you're not actively in combat. One final nitpick: there are parts of this game were you have to Power Bomb multiple bricks at once in a row. That should not be a thing. All of them should just explode in a chain, it's really stupid. However the worst part of this game is how fucking loud the Aeon scan is, Jesus Christ.
I get it, I've complained a lot, but I only critique things like this that I genuinely enjoy, because I only notice these things because I was so invested in the game. It's a breath of fresh air and an instant recommend for any Metroid fan. It's a very solid title with great gameplay and a good sense of exploration, but bogged down by bland environments, a weak roster of enemies, and other really annoying little quirks. I hope that with Dread, MercurySteam can flesh out the strengths (such as the Aeon abilities, the bossfights, and the fluidity of the controls), deliver more engaging visuals, and iron out the annoying time-wasting stuff. From what I've seen that's almost exactly what they're doing, now that they've gained Nintendo's trust. Metroid: Samus Returns is a solid albeit unsurprising Metroidvania, but that is hopelessly outclassed by it's modern contemporaries in both art style and variety.